Man who robbed MTS chairman gets prison

San Diego  Standing several feet away from one of the men who broke into his home, locked him and others in a bathroom, and set fire to portions of the residence, Metropolitan Transit System Chairman Harry Mathis delivered a hopeful message in court.

He told Harvey Henry Duson that he has a chance to turn his life around now that he has pleaded guilty and will serve prison time for his crimes. He said Duson had survived several brushes with death, including in the January robbery when Mathis pulled his own gun.

“You seem to have a charmed life. … We will pray for your success, and we wish you good luck in your decisions,” Mathis said.

Duson, 46, was sentenced Wednesday to 93 years to life in prison.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Eugenia Eyherabide, denied a defense motion asking her not to factor certain previous strikes on Duson’s record into his sentence. She said he has several convictions for violent crimes, including a 1993 robbery at a Lemon Grove Pizza Hut.

Duson, who tried to flee that robbery dressed as a delivery man, was shot several times during a confrontation with a sheriff’s deputy.

“This is why the Legislature made the three-strikes law,” the judge said.

But, she said, from the moment Duson’s case was sent to her courtroom, he wanted to plead guilty to spare the victims from having to testify in trial.

His lawyer, Stephen Cline, said he had never seen a defendant “step up and accept responsibility the way this defendant has.”

Even Mathis, a former San Diego city councilman, said he applauded Duson for pleading guilty, but told of the trauma of being attacked and robbed at his own home.

“It was a life-changing event, your honor, and it continues to be so,” he said.

Mathis said he and his wife, Mary, were not seeking restitution. He said it was enough to have survived the ordeal, but he would like to recover some of the items that were stolen.

The couple said outside the courtroom that several irreplaceable pieces of heirloom jewelry were taken, including a wedding ring that had belonged to Mathis’ mother.

He urged Duson to cooperate with authorities to bring the unidentified assailant to justice.

Prosecutors said Duson was one of two men who broke into Mathis’ home on Jan. 11. A gunman confronted him in his garage about 9 p.m. and demanded cash.

Mathis pulled his own gun — which he has a license to carry — and fired two shots but was overpowered, beaten and forced inside the home. His wife was forced at knifepoint to open a safe before being locked in a bathroom.

A neighbor went to the house after he heard the gunshots. He, too, was locked in the bathroom.

He also admitted charges stemming from a November 2011 robbery at a Sprint store in San Diego. Duson’s DNA was found on a nylon stocking that was used to bind one of the victims, said prosecutor Martin Doyle.